The ongoing agitation against proposed privatisation of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant seems to be taking a political turn, as it has now become more of a political issue than an issue of steel plant workers.
Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been desperately trying to take advantage of the steel plant agitation to stall the shifting of administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
On Tuesday, Naidu landed in Visakhapatnam in the name of calling on his party leader Palla Srinivas Rao, who had been on fast-unto-death for the last eight days.
He demanded that YSRC president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy should either resign from his post or take up the agitation against privatisation of steel plant.
Stating that Jagan was enacting dramas on the steel plant issue, the TDP chief questioned why YSRC leader Vijay Sai Reddy was trying to counsel the people stating that they should accept the reality on the privatisation of the steel plant.
Describing the steel plant as the soul of Vizag, the TDP chief alleged that the YSRC leaders were hell bent on looting the 'soul' itself.
“If Jagan has any love for Visakhapatnam, he should get the Obulapuram mines in Anantapur allotted for saving the Visakha Steel plant,” he said.
The YSRC has decided to launch a counter-attack on the TDP. While Sai Reddy announced 22-km-long padayatra in Visakhapatnam against privatisation, Jagan is landing in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday to meet the agitating steel plant workers. It remains to be seen what stand he would take on the issue.
Jagan has already written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is said to be working out a mid-way path to bail out the steel plant.